Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto killed in Syria

A Japanese reporter was killed while covering the civil war in Syria, Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday after the woman was identified.

Veteran war correspondent Mika Yamamoto of The Japan Press was killed while on the field in Aleppo. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Masaru Sato, Yamamoto was caught in gunfire while traveling with the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that an unnamed Japanese female journalist had been killed, and Yamamoto’s identity was confirmed by a reporter from the Associated Press, with whom she had worked, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The 45-year old specializes in conflict zone coverage and covered the war in Afghanistan and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Syria is engulfed in a civil war between rebel forces seeking to topple President Bashar Assad’s regime. More than 20,000 people have been killed since March 2011, according to the Journal. Rebels accused the regimes forces of brutality against media. AFP reports that there are three others missing since the incident.